Chapter 7

June 12, 1848

We have decided to leave tomorrow to buy cattle since we have cleaned out the easily accessible gravel beds of gold. We have found a total of four pockets in the gravel beds holding a lot of gold. After five days of work we managed to find around 15 pounds of gold. Luckily we haven't run into any of the Shasta or Klamath tribe while on the river. This is their territory and they are not friendly toward small parties. We agreed that we would tell no one where the gold came from and split it between us. I really didn't care too much as I still had about 800 pounds of paid credit with the Hudson Bay Company available to use. I would have given my share to Willy, but I knew he'd refuse.

June 13, 1848

After we climbed about 5 miles of steep hills we entered a high flat valley that had good water and tree cover that I thought would make a good farming area. When I checked the soil I found it to be a thin layer over a lava flow that I was unable to break through so it will only be good for ranching. We were able to make good time and traveled 30 miles before nightfall. We can see Mount Shasta in the distance and it is covered with snow for a good third or more of its height. Tomorrow we start though the mountains again and I have never seen such slopes before. I don't see how we are going to get cattle over these mountains.

June 14 - 18, 1848

I was surprised at how many river valleys we found in the mountains while going through them. We followed the river courses of the Klamath, Shasta and Sacramento rivers. We have finally gotten out of the mountains and are now in the Sacramento valley. While we can get cattle through I would hate to take a wagon over this trail. It shouldn't be too difficult to herd the cattle though. Most of the slopes leading up from the narrow river valleys have to be some of the steepest I have ever seen which should make it easy to keep the herd together.

It seems that there are few people working in the fields and on the ranches right now. Several people told us about the discovery of gold by Sutter's Fort on the American River. They also told stories of people becoming rich by picking up gold from the ground. We have been offered as much as 3 ounces of gold for our shovels and pickaxes by would-be miners who apparently have no other source for them. They seem crazed with the prospect of finding gold and willing to do or give up anything to do it. The only ones who seem to be doing well that I can see are the merchants, who are selling out of everything almost as soon as it arrives. I think the sight of the gold crazed miners has cured Willy of any gold fever he may have retained. We are continuing our journey down to Sutter's Fort to buy cattle and then we will be returning to Oregon.

June 24, 1848

We arrived at Sutter's Fort and were surprised to see how few people were around inside of the compound. The last I heard he had about a hundred to a hundred and fifty people working for him. When we went in to see Mr. Sutter, we found him walking around looking at what must have been a flourishing community before it was deserted. The only activity seemed to be around 10 or 12 stores on the outside of the community that appeared to be doing a brisk business. He told us the biggest store belonged to a Mr. S. Brannan who was supplying the mining population on their way to the new gold diggings. They are willing to pay very high prices for any sort of mining equipment and seem unbothered by the cost no matter how high. I saw men using their last dollars to buy shovels and picks.

Everyone seems to think that the countryside is an inexhaustible bank in which everyone has a balance and if they need money they only have to go out and get it. I know that the easy gold will be gone within two years leaving only big companies able to mine the gold hidden in the rocks. Mr. Sutter is not one of them, he will be broke within a short period. It's a shame because he is one of the most generous men I know of, treating everyone well and willing to extend credit to anyone. I wish I could save him from ruin, but I can't think of anything I can do that could save him. His own generous nature will doom him as he made so many loans to people who would never repay him.

We inquired about buying cattle for our farms in Oregon and he offered to sell us longhorns. We declined and asked if he had any of the eastern cattle for sale. He did but he wanted so much that we started to walk out. After he called us back, we finally settled at 40 dollars for each bull and 30 dollars for each heifer or three ounces of gold for the bulls and two ounces of gold for the heifers. He called some Indians and they brought out at least 50 head of which we took 36. We would have taken all of them but we could hire no one to help us herd them. We went to Mr. Brannan's store and looked at the prices shown for the items. A bushel of wheat that sold for one dollar in Oregon was selling here for five, while eggs were a dollar each. Other prices were similar.

Willy and I looked at each other and must have had the same thought at the same time. We could raise wheat and other provisions in Oregon and bring them back to California for a huge profit. Why bother looking for gold when the people here would give it to you? We decided that we would go back to Oregon and return with a mule train of provisions for the mining camps in California.

June 25, 1848

We started our journey back to Oregon and soon ran into trouble. Someone tried to stampede the cattle that night after we settled down. Willy's mule turned out to be a good watchdog and let us know something was wrong before they got into position. Willy told me to watch the cattle and disappeared in the dark after three steps. I heard a shot and a loud scream, then the sounds of horses rapidly leaving the area. Shortly afterward Willy came back with a new pistol and a rifle. We remained undisturbed for the rest of the night. When I asked Willy about the shots, he told me some men had decided to visit us. When I asked who he merely grunted and told me, "Dead men."

June 26-July 2, 1848

The further we got away from Sutter's Fort, we began to see less and less people engaged in agriculture or ranching. I snorted when I saw this, "Do they think they'll be able to eat the gold they're mining?" We took it easy getting over the mountains with the cattle and finally arrived back at the Klamath River again. The trip has been hard but largely quiet. If we had wanted to, we could have added who knows how many longhorns to our herd, as there was no one around during much of our journey.

July 3-8 1848

We decided to rest the cattle before we began the final stretch through the mountains and to prospect for some more gold while we were here. I led Willy and the cattle to the location where I remembered that Happy Camp was located not too far away in the future. I remembered that it got the name of Happy Camp due to the ease with which gold was found. We stayed for five days and found 10 pounds of placer gold in gravel pockets and two quartz and gold fragments weighing 16 ounces and 23 ounces respectively. Afterwards neither Willy nor I expressed any regrets about leaving to return home as we were beginning to really miss our wives and homes.

July 9-11, 1848

As we traveled down the last steep mountain trail leading to the Willamette valley, we started running into men heading toward California and the gold diggings. Everyone we met asked us about the gold fields and if we had made our fortune yet. I told them about the chaos in the gold fields and the high prices of everything, but it seemed everyone was convinced that they were going to be the ones who struck it rich.

Willy and I got to betting which questions were going to be asked when we met the next party. Almost without exception, these were young men of about 15 to 36 years old who were going to be sorely missed during the harvest season. Many had only the most minimal of supplies and equipment with them. We tried to discourage the youngest ones but they were just as infected with gold fever as the older men and refused to listen. I wondered how many would live to return home again.

July 12-16, 1848

As we arrived in the Willamette valley it seemed that most of the male population of Oregon was on the move. Everywhere we went there were parties of men headed toward the gold fields. Farms that on our way to California were busy and flourishing now appeared abandoned or run only by women. Crops were untended and fences were falling down.

Willy and I began to worry about what we were going to find when we arrived at our town. Would anyone be left? The closer we got to Salem and the more settled the area, the more we saw signs of neglect and abandonment. Sometimes we seemed to be moving in a surreal landscape in which everything seemed normal except for the missing people.

July 17, 1848

We arrived at the town, which we saw was now being called Cincinnati. I saw a lot fewer wagons but thought that the town, while quiet, didn't have the ghost town appearance we had seen at Skinner's Mud Hole. We headed toward our land claims and drove the cattle into the corral next to my barn. We heard the dogs barking and soon saw our wives pouring out of the doors. We soon saw other women start to come out as well. Corrie, Anna, and several other leaders of the women appeared and waited while our wives welcomed us home.

Corrie asked us about the gold fields and the situation in California. I explained that we did not see the gold diggings ourselves, but from listening to people who had, the diggings were crowded places with little food and shelter. At this several of the women who I knew had older boys broke out in tears. I realized that their sons must have been in the groups rushing to the gold fields. When I asked I found that fully half or more of the men had gone to California. I found it was mostly the older men and those with new wives or small children who had stayed behind. There were not sufficient men to take care of the existing fields. Several of the women were attempting to run the farms by themselves but were having problems keeping up with the chores. That's what they were doing here now, discussing ways to help each other until as Corrie put it, "Those knuckleheads get some sense back and come home."

I knew that we had this year and the next to make a lot of money from the miners by supplying their needs. I joined the group and laid out ideas for selling as much of our produce to the miners as possible. All of the women had horses and quite a few also had mules. I told them that I thought that our best course of action would be to put together a mule train of goods for the mining camps. I asked each woman what her husband/son would most want to have if he was away from home, that we could pack over the mountains.

Our biggest need was going to be guards for the mule train. While most people were law abiding there were always those who would rather steal than work. The problem was that we did not have enough men to serve as guards and stay here to maintain the fields. I suggested that some of the women who had trained in self-defense act as guards and got looks of shock from almost everyone. The idea that women could be guards had never occurred to them. Coming from my background I had thrown out the idea without considering how they would react to it. Although women acted as the defenders of the household when the men were gone, the idea of repelling Indians or thieves was not considered as something that a woman would do voluntarily.

I got even more shocked looks when I stated that the women going with us needed to learn how to shoot both a rifle and a pistol. Luckily Elizabeth spoke up and volunteered to teach any woman who wanted to go to learn how to shoot. I was glad about that as the only way I knew how to train someone to shoot was by physically adjusting their position until they were in the correct one. I didn't think any of the women would stand for me placing my body against theirs to correct their aiming points.

Corrie spoke up at that point and gave the reason for going that many of the women would accept, "If you do go, you can see about finding your sons and husbands and persuading them to come home." After several discussions about what would be best to take, the group broke up to go home and think.

I turned to look at my wives and saw six half closed eyes looking back at me. I looked around for Willy and saw him being led out of the door by Ola. Looking back at my wives, I felt like a mouse under the gaze of three hungry cats. Stretching out their hands, my wives grabbed hold of anything they could reach and half dragged me toward the bedroom.

When we came into the bedroom, I was confronted with three horny women and a package of leather condoms by the bed. "Where did you find these?" I asked.

Elizabeth just grinned, "Didn't I tell you that you can find anything when you look around enough?"

(I learned from Louise later they had found a newspaper called the Golden Star from California in one of the chests of goods we had ordered from the Hudson Bay Company. It had advertisements for condoms and other birth control devices for sale through the mail. Elizabeth had taken a chance by sending a letter with some money to an address in California through the new post office the Government had set up in Oregon City. To their surprise the letter had resulted in a shipment of condoms and sponges arriving on the Mogul addressed to Elizabeth.)

Elizabeth, acting as the spokesman again, told me, "We have decided to go back to the alternating days between the three of us. Claire is first, I'm next and Louise gets the third day. On the fourth day you get to choose what you want to do." While trying to give myself time to think about the situation, I looked around and noticed the children weren't in the room anymore.

"Where are the babies?"

"In the next room with another bed. We decided it wasn't fair to make the others watch while you made love to someone else, unless we are invited to join you. So the ones who don't have you that night will be taking care of the children. First we want a kiss for each of us to show how much you've missed us."

I did my best to prove how much I missed them and I believe I succeeded, since I saw three sets of tented nightgowns after I finished. Elizabeth and Louise headed toward the door and disappeared. Claire took my arm and led me to the bed where in short order I was stripped of my clothes. The kisses had an effect on me as well and my cock was standing at attention. Claire looked at my erection, "I see the poor thing needs some immediate attention."

Kneeling she used a washcloth to clean it thoroughly, then using the tip of her tongue started to make sure no spot on it had missed being cleaned. Paying particular attention to the area behind the mushroom head, she gave little short licks making sure. Extending her tongue, she then gave the bottom of my dick several licks like a child licking a candy cane from the bottom to the top, making sure it was thoroughly wet. Pushing me back to lie on the bed she pulled a condom out and put it on me, tying it fast with a small ribbon on the end. She stopped then and I groaned with frustration with the unfilled need to cum. She began to play with my balls using her hands to gently fondle them, first the one and then the other.

I couldn't take any more, so with a low growl, I picked Claire up and threw her on the bed. Pulling up her nightgown, I threw it on the floor. I saw I wasn't the only one aroused, as wetness glistened on the inside of her thighs. Grabbing her legs I pulled them up and apart and started to enter her. With a swift, almost brutal push, I bottomed out on the first stroke hitting her cervix.